Some notes on drumming (Hard vs Expert)

[Tarzanman]

Even though I have played piano (in the past) and dabble on bass and guitar, I was new to drums when I purchased Rock Band.
I jumped right in the 'hard' difficulty after passing Weezer on 'hard' on my first go-through (no, i'm not a wiz...its just a *really* easy song, even on expert).

Some notes on the hierarchy:

Even though the difficulty climbs steadily (and logically) through all of the tiers for drums on the 'hard' difficutly... they are WAY OFF once you get to expert.

Songs that should be in the 2nd tier of difficulty on expert (Dani California, which I can pass) are out in the 3rd or 4th tier, while harder songs like Epic (which i *cannot* pass...holy crap, I never realized how much bass drum metal/hard rock used) are ranked as 'easier'.

So BEWARE.... once you get to expert, all bets are off... tempo and bpm will vary greatly from song to song, and the only way to know which songs are more (or less) difficult than the others is to be familiar with them already!

As an aside: Once you pass a song on expert... you never want to go back to 'hard' again... its like DRUGS, MAN! HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME!

[AdamWill]

It's really not that simple.

The things people find difficult about drumming vary a lot. Some people can follow 'complex' patterns very well at a slower speed but have trouble with even simpler patterns at a higher speed. Some people are fine with doing rolls but have trouble with even a simple alternate bass beat.

So the order of songs is unlikely ever to be quite 'perfect', and it really couldn't be for everybody. There are just too many elements to drumming.

It's similar on guitar, really. There's stuff in GH2's third and fourth tier that I can pass on hard, but a song in the first tier that I can't. (Yes, I suck at GH, this is just by way of illustration). Again, there are different elements to the game and you can be better at some than others.

[Tarzanman]

It's really not that simple.

The things people find difficult about drumming vary a lot. Some people can follow 'complex' patterns very well at a slower speed but have trouble with even simpler patterns at a higher speed. Some people are fine with doing rolls but have trouble with even a simple alternate bass beat.

So the order of songs is unlikely ever to be quite 'perfect', and it really couldn't be for everybody. There are just too many elements to drumming.

It's similar on guitar, really. There's stuff in GH2's third and fourth tier that I can pass on hard, but a song in the first tier that I can't. (Yes, I suck at GH, this is just by way of illustration). Again, there are different elements to the game and you can be better at some than others.

With all due respect.... you're off your rocker, buddy.

The songs *do* get progressively harder through the tiers on 'hard' mode. You can see this first-hand mostly by the placement and timing of the kick pedal in relation to the other drum beats.

Expert is all over the place. Compare 'Epic' to 'Dani California' and tell me that i'm wrong (i'm not!)

[shoombabi]

I have to agree. I just went from nailing a tier with 4 and 5 stars on expert to the brick wall that is "The Hand That Feeds."

Doesn't help that my red pad doesn't let me do drum rolls :(
But it's definitely a HUGE jump in difficulty.

Hell, I got 99% on Enter Sandman on my first attempt on Expert. That's what? Second to last tier?